MA3413: Group representations I
Homework problems due on October 18, 2012
In all the problems below, the ground field is the field of complex numbers.
1. Show that any irreducible representation of a finite abelian group is
one-dimensional.
2. For each of the following cases, find a decomposition of the representation (V, ρ) of the group G into a direct sum of irreducible representations,
and compute the dimension of the space of intertwining operators on it:
(a) G = Z/nZ = {e, g, g2 , . . . , gn−1 }, V = Cn , ρ(g) is a cyclic shift of
basis vectors: ρ(g)e1 = e2 , . . . , ρ(g)en = e1 ;
(b) G = Sn , V = Cn , σ ∈ Sn permutes basis vectors accordingly:
ρ(σ)ei = eσ(i) ;
(c) G = S3 , the representation is its (left) regular representation.
3. Find in the dihedral group Dn (group of symmetries of the regular ngon) two elements a, b that generate this group and satisfy relations an = e,
b2 = e, and ba = a−1 b.
4. Find all (equivalence classes of) 1-dimensional representations of
(a) D4 ; (b) D5 ; (c) Dn ; (d) Q8 (quaternion units).
5. Find all (equivalence classes of) 2-dimensional representations of
(a) Z/5Z; (b) D4 ; (c) D5 ; (d) Q8 .
6. Write down all irreducible characters for (a) S3 = D3 ; (b) D4 ; (c) D5 ;
(d) Q8 . Check directly the orthonormality property for these characters.
Optional question (does not count towards the continuous assessment):
Factor the Dedekind–Frobenius determinant (determinant of the multiplication table of the group that we discussed in the first lecture) for S3 , D4 , and
Q8 (you can use any computer software of your choice to do it). Can you
guess how characters of irreps can be read from the factors of the determinant?